Accusations of Chick-fil-A Homophobia

Accusations+of+Chick-fil-A+Homophobia

Emily Swindell

One of America’s favorite fast-food chains has sparked up controversy as they continue to donate to homophobic charities through its foundation despite claiming it had no political affiliation. The Chick-fil-A Foundation donated more than $1.8 million to three groups with a problematic history of anti-LGBTQ discrimination in 2017, according to recently released tax filings gathered by ThinkProcess.

That year, Chick-fil-A gave $1.6 million to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which is a religious organization that requires its employees to abstain from “homosexual acts,” $150,000 to the Salvation Army, which has been accused of homophobic discrimination and advocacy in the past and whose media relations director once claimed that gay people “deserve death.” Lastly, they gave $6,000 to the Paul Anderson Youth Home, which is a Christian residential home that preaches to young boys that same-sex relations is a “rage against Jesus Christ and His values.”

The fast-food chain responded with a lengthy statement intended to set the record straight and accuse the media of spreading lies and propaganda to reflect poorly on them. In the statement they said, “To suggest that our efforts in supporting these organizations was focused on suppressing a group of people is misleading and inaccurate.” They also added that they not only donate to those specific charities, but other non-profit ones and the fact that 3 of them happen to be anti-LGBTQ is a mere coincidence. They then went on to say that they no longer donate to the Paul Anderson Youth Homes, but said nothing about the other two. Either way, this has resulted in many lost customers and can potentially give Chick-fil-A a bad name in the public eye.